Review of Stranded

Introduction

A ship carrying a convicted man and his family is hit by a violent storm and chaos breaks out on board. Lives are lost but David Robinson puts his faith in God and brings together his family during the crisis, in the confusion their youngest son Jacob goes missing and is put onto a small boat to escape the storm with others.

They realise that they are trapped in the hull of the ship and end up drifting out near rocks and shallow waters, after breaking free from there confine they stumble on an island where their life begins a new chapter as they fight for survival.
Using natural resources they build a home, gather fruit and food and salvage the wreck they travelled in for useful tools and items.

Various events happen while on the island and within seven years the Robinson family are coping well with their surroundings and the loss of their son, until they are harassed by a band of pirates.

Video

Stranded is a visual feast in how this movie has been shot, the whole movie has a peaceful feel to it because of the surroundings, beautiful scenery, rippling waters and foliage. The experience swallows you into the movie and you feel like you`re there with them. `Stranded` is presented in anamorphic widescreen 1.85:1, the quality of the picture transfer is very clear although the colours seem a little on the washed out side and not to vibrant or highly defined, but non the less clear enough even the tones in skin colour are natural and realistic. This is probably due to the strange format the DVD is in, according to the sleeve and packaging the DVD is in a NTSC 16:9 screen format although it`s a region 2 DVD with a PG certificate from the BBFC I`ve never seen one like this before.

No detail is lost during those dark scenes and bold black colours, various flame torches or moonlight give off just enough illumination to brighten the scene. To set the scene up perfectly even more there were no dropouts, fleks or grain apparent either.

In a movie like this the widescreen format plays a big part and gives such more scale and depth to the picture and various scenes which there are plenty of to choose from. The scenery, sets and locations in this movie are so immersive as already stated and its hard to believe you`re watching all this on television, rock formations and various islands surrounded by water are nice as are the various scenes of tangled foliage and waterfalls just a lovely adventure to be a part of and a movie full of tranquil bliss.

Besides the lovely scenery are some impressive sets and the huge tree house complex is one of them and shows what the family have been up to over the years on the island. It looks like a children`s adventure playground actually with its various swing bridges and platforms built into the trees. Within the complex of wood the family have managed to get cattle, honey, eggs and fruit and everything you see in the house is from a natural source for example the drinking jugs, tables, chairs and beds. It`s really good to see how far they`ve come and what can be achieved. The native trading village also is on a big scale and is situated in nice surroundings too.

The movie isn`t all quiet and subtle and does have its few action or tension scenes, the snake bite and remedy scene is one of those and is surprisingly very emotional between the characters especially between David, Lara and "Namatetee", the native. Once the pirates invade the house they really ruin the family`s livelihood and take their place for themselves. Using the primitive logs and gunpowder they have the Robinsons make crude cannons that fire and put up a good strong battle against them and try to stand their ground against the odds. The storm blowing around the ship in the opening scene is realistic looking and plenty is going on to look at and see for example the weather conditions, sails breaking and the wild torrent of waves and water. The scene is shot well although miniatures may have been used here, hard to tell really.

Audio

A simple Dolby Digital Stereo 2.0 track is used and is adequate for this movie although a bit of Dolby Pro Logic wouldn`t have gone a miss for the various background ambient noises like birds and insects etc. The dialogue is clear and the distant ambient sounds are also although confined to just two channels only, the creaks of wood onboard the ship, baby cries and weather conditions can all be heard.

There is an array of different ambient sounds throughout the movie because of the locations used and the woodland or tropical jungle scenes are filled with breaking twigs, birds and insects all of which add a lot of atmosphere to the scenes.

This movie is full of mostly pleasant tunes but always smooth and melodic no matter what scene, there are not too many harsh notes or music changes in the action scenes apart from volume increases here and there. Flute tunes accompany the cuts between scenes and feature a lot throughout. The opening theme tune sounds like a "pirate`s theme" and made up of deep brass and string, sometimes powerful and emotional at times.

Features

Main menu shows title, family and house that they build. There are no animations or audio whatsoever, menu choices are scene selection which is split into 22 chapters and play movie. There is no trailer or features included either.

Conclusion

A seven year gap bridges the storyline halfway which runs at 182 minutes aprox and overall has a plot very similar to `Cast Away` starring Tom Hanks, apart from the family and not an individual stranded survivor. Although thin on the features section this DVD has a certain appeal because of its length and quality of storyline and is very enjoyable because of the depth of the visuals. The Robinson family remain very close together in love throughout their perils and their faith in God sees them through safely. `Rita, Sue and Bob Too` star George Costigan has a role in `Stranded` as Captain Quirk who is a trader on the ship called `The Albatross` before he meets his death.